7 comments:

it does approach a sort of metaphysical essentialism, like those very old statues of siva that are just empty frames with little feetthat basically say, siva is the world, or if one is a little more sophisticated, thought is a framing mechanism for something we can't quite ever grasp, divinity, or madness perhaps, or life is always framed by death, and vice versa, in other words, always already enframed, tat tvam asi, in any possible sense, or senselessness.

Do you know the movie "Down by Law" by Jim Jarmush? When Zak, Jack and Bob are in the jail cell, Bob draws a window on the wall, then asks: "Am I looking at the window, or through the window?". Jack, no, Zak (or Jack?) answers: "Bob, in this case, you're looking at the window". I think it fails the test as there's no story arch - where's the beginning, the tension and the resolution? Don't take me wrong - I see abstract comics everywhere since I've found your blog (and started to read your anthology) - as far as I'm concerned, you're definitively educating.

The coolest people on earth

On Abstract Comics: The Anthology (Currently SOLD OUT):

The artists assembled by Andrei Molotiu for his anthology ABSTRACT COMICS (Fantagraphics, $39.99) push “cartooning” to its limits... It’s a fascinating book to stare at, and as with other kinds of abstract art, half the fun is observing your own reactions: anyone who’s used to reading more conventional sorts of comics is likely to reflexively impose narrative on these abstractions, to figure out just what each panel has to do with the next.

--Douglas Wolk, New York Times Book Review, Holiday Books edition, December 6, 2009The collection has a wealth of rewarding material... it is a significant historical document that may jump-start an actual new genre.

--Doug Harvey, LA WeeklyIt becomes a treat to take a page of art - or a simple panel - and consider how the shapes, texture, depth, and color interact with one another; to reflect on how, when one takes the time, the enjoyment one ordinarily finds in reading a purely textually-oriented, narrative-driven written story can - with the graphic form - be translated into something completely different.

...this arresting book is like a scoop of primordial narrative, representational mud. Which is to say, it has vitaminic powers.

--Design Observer

For years, comics (at least American ones) have doggedly refused for one reason or another, to consider other schools of art and beyond mere representation. It's only now we see artists attempting to branch out and try to push at the edge's of the medium's definition. As such I found Abstract Comics to be a revealing, thought-provoking and genuinely lovely book that I'll be sure to be rereading in the months to come.